Two-time world champion Kento Momota announced his retirement from international badminton at the age of 29, on Thursday.
Momota’s final tournament will be the upcoming Thomas Cup from April 29 to May 5 in Chengdu, China, where he will compete in the Japanese team.
Momota wanted to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics but is ranked 52 in the world putting him out of contention.
“I have made this decision because it feels like I have reached my physical and mental limit in trying to get back to being the best in the world,” Momota was reported to have said by AFP.
The former world No 1 was banned from competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics after being embroiled in a gambling scandal in Japan.
The 29-year-old shuttler won back to back World Championship titles in 2018 and 2019 and became the second Japanese player, after Nozomi Okuhara, to win a singles World Championship gold.
Momota enjoyed his best-ever year of the BWF World Tour in 2019 where he won a record 11 titles. However, he was involved in a car crash hours after winning the 2020 Malaysia Masters. Momota’s driver was killed while the Japanese shuttler suffered a fractured eye socket which required surgery.
Momota was out of action for a year and suffered from double vision. He failed to get out of his group at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.